Forward, backward, and weighted stochastic bridges.

Abstract

We define stochastic bridges as conditional distributions of stochastic paths that leave a specified point in phase-space in the past and arrive at another one in the future. These can be defined relative to either forward or backward stochastic differential equations and with the inclusion of arbitrary path-dependent weights. The underlying stochastic equations are not the same except in linear cases. Accordingly, we generalize the theory of stochastic bridges to include time-reversed and weighted stochastic processes. We show that the resulting stochastic bridges are identical, whether derived from a forward or a backward time stochastic process. A numerical algorithm is obtained to sample these distributions. This technique, which uses partial stochastic equations, is robust and easily implemented. Examples are given, and comparisons are made to previous work. In stochastic equations without a gradient drift, our results confirm an earlier conjecture, while generalizing this to cases with path-dependent weights. An example of a two-dimensional stochastic equation with no potential solution is analyzed and numerically solved. We show how this method can treat unexpectedly large excursions occurring during a tunneling or escape event, in which a system escapes from one quasistable point to arrive at another one at a later time.